Healing Gabe (Last Hangman MC Book 3) (16 page)

“After what happened years ago, he was a shell of himself. It took him a while to gain some of his self back. He spent his time making sure everyone around him was happy and finding their other halves. He was just content seeing others happy, which was difficult to see, knowing that he was desperate to be happy himself,” Nicole says sadly.

“I think he’s really sad deep down inside and doesn’t want to get his heart broken again. He just wants to protect himself and I get that, we’ve all been through something awful but we had someone fighting for us or worth fighting for. He has trust issues, like all our men. They can get all alpha but when it comes to feelings, they are worse than we are. He’s probably still getting used to the idea that you have feelings for him and want more with him. Give him some time to get over his stupid fear of commitment and he’ll come around.” Ayd says reassuringly.

“I know I’m probably being too hard on him and asking for too much. All I want is for him to love me the same way I love him. It’s hard to be okay when you’ve just told him you were falling for him and he tells you he doesn’t want that right now.” I sigh.

“One thing I know about my brother is that he’s always loved you. I might have been eight when you were around, but the way he talked about you was different than the way he was about Annie. He used to talk about her with fondness; while he talked about at you with adoration and lust.” Nicole says, rendering me speechless. I had no idea he was that way back then and this is confusing me even more whilst making me happy at the same time.

“Ugh, another fucking dipshit trying to fuck with my girls.” Ayd frowns making all of us laugh, despite the gravity of the situation.

The rest of the day passes quickly, we all tried to keep our minds off the men and the club business but throughout the day, you could catch each of the girls looking in the distance, clearly worrying about their other halves.

CHAPTER 18

Gabe

I feel like a fucking asshole for pushing her away when she was giving me what I wanted and needed to hear.
She’s in love with me.
I didn’t react well at all but I couldn’t let myself react the way I wanted to, not with what’s going to happen in the next couple of days. I need to keep my head in the game, the moment I admit my feelings I won’t be able to keep my head in the game.

I park in front of the compound and walk straight to the Chapel and see Sanders, Ric, Ray, their sergeants at arms and VP, Ant and Aleck already seated. “I’m not late again am I?”

“No.” Ant chuckles.

“Good. Had to make sure Bennett and Ryan knew what would happen if anything happened to any of our women.”

“Good Brother. Scare them a little.” Aleck smirks evilly.

“Gotta keep them in check.” I chuckle.

“Gotta ask you, Brother. Who were you talking to last night on the phone?” Ant asks me, any trace of humour long gone.

“Jared.” I sigh rubbing my face.

“What happened?”

“Viv, Line and Nic were out with Bennett, bar hunting for Viv. Jared was there wanting to buy the same fucking place and he threatened them. Bennett kicked his ass. It’s definitely the Kings who are the ones behind everything, including the threats to your woman, Sanders. I don’t know exactly what he’s playing at, but I do know that
he
wants to take us down and keep our women for himself.”

“That sick motherfucking piece of shit!” Sanders yells. “I’m going to get some of my men to keep an eye on all of them too. I don’t want to risk anything.”

“Thanks, man, appreciate it,” Ant says.

“Not doing it for you, Ant. Doing it for them, they’ve all been through enough shit as it is.” He sighs and steps out to call his men I’m guessing.

“Are you and Viv good?” Aleck asks me.

“What do you mean?” I look at him confused.

“When you left her this morning, were you good?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You sure?” He raises his eyebrow at me.

“We talked this morning and she didn’t like it but we were good when I left. Why?”

“I don’t know Jared, but I’m guessing since he targeted them yesterday, he’s not going to wait forever before he attacks. Better be safe than sorry. Make sure you’re really good with her before any shit goes down.” Aleck looks at me intently and I nod, not sure what to do.

“Shoot her a text if you’re so scared of calling her. Things are going to turn to shit, Aleck is right, you need to make sure you’re good in case something happens,” Ant says, his voice full of emotion, clearly scared of what might happen.

Me: Sorry about this morning. Knowing that you love me and fell in love with me is beyond anything I ever expected to happen to me. We’ll talk when I see you later. I promise. Xxx

I don’t have to wait long before she replies.

Viv: Good to know you can apologize when you are in the wrong :p can’t wait to see you later and sorry for nagging. I just couldn’t hold my feelings in any longer.

Me: Don’t worry about it. I don’t want us to fight, the makeup sex is good but fighting is exhausting.

Viv: We can jump into angry sex any time as long as it turns out like last night, I’m all for it.

Me: My type of woman…

Viv: Only one I hope…

Me: My woman…

Viv: My man…

Me: I like the sound of that. Gotta get back into our meeting, will chat to you later. We good?

Viv: Alright, Handsome. Yes we are. Talk later <3

“Looks like you two are good?” Aleck chuckles.

“Yes we are.” I smile.

“Good, now we can get back to business.” Ric says, mocking me. I glare at him and they all chuckle. I chuckle too, realizing I am pussy whipped.

“Two of my men are going over to Aleck’s place to help Bennett and Ryan. You can’t be too careful. We need to come up with a plan of attack to take them down and fast.” Sanders says coming back into the room.

“What do you suggest?” Ric says, taunting Sanders.

“Good question, Ric.” Sanders looks at him smirking, not intimidated in the slightest. He has balls to stand up to Ric.

“Is the answer going to be as good though?” Ric raises his eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You tell me. We have the upper hand even if they outnumber us. We-”

“How can we have the upper hand if they outnumber us? That makes no sense,” Ric says getting agitated.

“If you’d let me finish that’d be great, thanks.” He says sarcastically. “As I was saying, we have a man on the inside. He’s our eyes and ears on all things Kings and he’s given me invaluable information. Jared is planning to take our women today. I don’t know exactly when, but I took it upon myself to have my men move them, including Bennett and Ryan, into a motel so they are safe. They are just out of town and hopefully they won’t find them. Now, the only way for us to take them down is to strike when they least expect it. Most of the club is at their compound, most likely planning on how to take us down so we should strike today, as soon as we can. All three clubs and myself want them gone and for good, along with the local cops so why wait? They certainly won’t be missed.”

“So, we should just go there and end them all, a massive shoot off?” Ric asks perplexed.

“Yes. Fast, easy and if we do this right, none of us will get hurt,” Sanders says gauging Ric’s reaction.

“Here I thought you were going to come up with some crazy ass elaborate plan. I actually approve of this plan. Not in the rules, but the rules don’t apply anymore to them.” Ric shocks us all into silence.

“Those in favor of a massive shoot off. Yay or nay?” Ant asks us. The only answers we hear are yay. “Yay it is then.” He hits the gavel.

“Where are our women?” Aleck asks Sanders, looking very uneasy.

“Told you, in a motel outside of town.”

“Why won’t you tell me where?” Aleck says, clearly not happy.

“After all I’ve done for you, you still don’t trust me.” Sanders faces him off.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, I wanna know where my woman is. Is someone staying with my daughter?”

“Someone is watching over Josie and the kids, don’t worry. Ayden and Line are with her too. They are at New Orleans Motel outside of town by the 401. Call her if you don’t believe me.” Sanders dares him to call.

“Was it so hard to fucking say it in the first place?” Aleck glares at him.

“No, but it’s fun to rile you up and it works every time.” Sanders smirks, wrong thing to say. Aleck wipes the smirk off of Sanders’ face with one single blow to the jaw.

“Motherfucker!” Aleck yells.

“Okay, I deserved that. How about we work together and fight later. We need to move now if we wanna take them down.” Sanders holds his hand out for Aleck to shake.

“Deal.” Aleck shakes it and I’m proud of him. He’s hot headed like me but he’s just proven that he can swallow his pride for a moment and work along with someone who just pissed him off and whose profession he despises.

We all get ready and gather everyone inside the compound, letting them know what’s going to happen and how we’re finally going to take them down. Aleck, Ant, Sanders and myself all excuse ourselves to go call our women before we head out.

I get nervous when Viv doesn’t answer on the first ring. “Hey Handsome.”

“How are you?”

“I’m alright, kinda nervous about this sudden change of location. What’s going on?”

“We’ve received some threats targeting you, Nicole and Jenny, Sanders’ wife.”

“Fuck, I didn’t expect that. What’s going to happen? How long do we have to stay here?” she asks trying to play it cool but I can tell she’s nervous.

“I don’t know Doll. Hopefully, it’ll all be over very soon. Just be careful and only trust our men and the girls, alright?”

“Okay, the cops are staying outside, Bennett and Ryan are in here with us. Please, no matter what you do, stay safe.” she says softly.

“I will, Viv. Don’t worry, I’ll be with you in no time.”

“You better be. I know you don’t do the three words thing but I do. I love you, Gabe.”

I sigh, fuck she knows how to fucking get to me. “I don’t, but I feel them nonetheless.”

“You do?” she asks surprised.

“Of course I do.” I smile softly.

“Thank God! Please, stay safe.”

I chuckle. “I will Doll. You too.”

“See you later.”

“Later.” I hang up, not wanting to, but knowing we have things to do.

We are on our way to the Kings’ compound, all three clubs taking a different road as to not wake any suspicions, and if they try to stop us, they only have the number to go after one club. It takes us quite some time to get to their compound. We came up with a great idea after Sanders got some new intel. Apparently, they don’t keep the women they’re holding captive at the compound, so at least only those motherfucking Kings will be there and we won’t be killing any innocents. We don’t plan on going easy on them, it’ll be fucking chaos. We know Jared won’t be there, but at least most of his club will be there and will be gone within a few seconds. Never liked working with cops, but this time has proven different. Sanders isn’t like the other cops, I don’t know what his story is, but he had no problem turning his back to his badge and his acceptance speech about respecting the law and shit.

After two hours we arrive at their compound. We park our bikes far enough away so they don’t hear or see us coming and quickly get into position, all three clubs surrounding them. We see movement in and around the compound, looks like we’ve been spotted, finally. Can’t wait to take some of those fuckers down. The Angels shoot at the first couple of guys who come rushing out and we follow suit, shooting at anyone that comes out. They still outnumber us by a long shot, looks like they had some of their other charters step in, hopefully we don’t have another fucking rat who gave them a heads up. We’re relentless and keep shooting and the noise is deafening. All of us forming an arc around them, blocking any escape route they could use.

Too soon we run out of ammunition and have to retreat and take cover to avoid their shots.

“Cover me.” Sanders yells and runs to the side of the house, behind our line. I don't know what the fuck he’s doing but he better not get himself killed, I don’t want to be the one to tell his wife that he was shot because he decided to help us take out Kings.

After a few minutes, Sanders comes running back and motions for us to move backwards. “Get out of the fucking way.” he yells and not ten seconds later, we hear this loud
bang
and watch the Kings’ compound explode, sending debris everywhere. Bodies are shredded into pieces, parts of the compound and bikes are flying everywhere. It’s fucking chaos. Most of us had the time to jump for cover but some of us didn’t quite make it and have either been burnt or badly cut.

I get up and grab my gun, walking towards the two remaining Kings who are still standing and end them without regret. I try to check the bodies that are on the ground, seeing if any belong to any of our three clubs. Unfortunately, one guy from the Angels was crushed by a bike engine and didn’t make it. I cut off his patches and put them in my pocket.

Slowly, we all gather ourselves and go back to our bikes, I spot Ric and walk over to him. “I’m sorry, man.” I say as I hand over his fallen comrade’s patches.

He sighs sadly. “Thank you. I appreciate you doing this.”

“Don’t mention it.” I nod my head to him and go to my bike.

We start the long journey back to the compound, feeling happy with ourselves despite our losses. We know there are still others and their other charters are still up and running. This is not over, no, this is just the beginning.

We’ve just declared war on one of the biggest clubs in Louisiana.

They will rally their charters and will come after us for revenge, but in the meantime, we’re going to enjoy the fact that we’ve made a huge dent in their operation. It’s only temporary, but hopefully it’ll give us enough time to rally our own charters and prepare for retaliation.

When Ant mentioned an alliance with the Bastards and Angels, I didn’t think it’d work. We’re all pig headed and want things to go our way. With the shit we’ve all been through because of those two clubs, it was hard at first, but things changed in the past twelve years. Things worked out pretty well with this alliance, which surprised everybody. Everybody worked well with each other, things went smoothly for us. Over these past couple of years, we had to face a lot of betrayal coming from within, but with the right people by your side, you can overcome everything. It’ll show those other clubs out there who want to take us down that we are strong and they shouldn’t mess with us.